Just three years ago, Perry County had very few outdoor adventure opportunities beyond its water features. Now, the Perry County Park has over seven miles of challenging hiking trails with many miles more planned in other areas of the county.
The trail development at Perry County Park began in early 2017 when Ben Braman, chair of the Pathfinders of Perry County, received permission from the County to begin developing trails on the county-owned property on the mountain adjacent to the park.
“At first it was just me blazing with a machete,” Braman joked.
Braman and his family relocated to the area in 2016 when his wife accepted a job in the Appalachian Regional Healthcare (ARH) system. He began asking around, looking for places to adventure himself. Local leaders at the Perry County Fiscal Court embraced the idea to develop trails and wrote a grant to the Recreational Trail Program (RTP), funded by the Federal Highway Administration. They received the $100,000 grant in early 2018, and hired Braman to lay out and build the trails.
“City and county leaders have been pivotal in developing this trail system,” Braman said, “along with Pathfinders of Perry County who has spearheaded gaining community support for the project.”
One of the early projects of Pathfinders, which is one of Foundation of Appalachian Kentucky’s supported non-profits, was to establish the River Arts Greenway downtown. The Greenway is a one-mile path along the North Fork of the Kentucky River, which runs alongside Main Street in Hazard. By communicating about the park’s new trail development through their Facebook and community meetings, Pathfinders has been responsible for countless donations, which has enabled Braman to provide food and tools for the volunteer crews.
Several other groups have sent volunteers to the area to help develop the system, including AmeriCorps, Eastern Kentucky University, all the local high schools, and more. The JROTC program at the local high schools have even incorporated trail building into their programming.
This summer, the county sponsored the first paid crew. They hired eight Perry County Central and Hazard High School students for the summer. Each week they have worked tirelessly for 20 hours each week, sometimes volunteering their free time on their own initiative to finish trails.
Beyond volunteers, other donations have been critical to their success. For example, ARH donated their tool trailer and is also sponsoring their trailhead map kiosks. Kids On the Move, an initiative of the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, donated over $12,000 to Pathfinders for trail building efforts.
“All the trails have been built to National Forest Standards. Matt Abel, who works for the Daniel Boone National Forest near Red River Gorge, has come down to help us make sure we are meeting the standards, how we can best reinforce the trails, and more,” Braman explained.
The RTP grant was only meant to fund 3.2 miles of trails. However, with all the community support, they well exceeded the $96,000 match of in-kind labor and materials required by the grant, and turned that funding into 7 miles of trails.
To accompany the hiking opportunities, the county has been working on getting the word out about the Park’s kayak rental program, which started in summer 2018. Individuals can rent a kayak at the park pool and shuttle to downtown for put-in located near City Hall, along the River Arts Greenway. The route takes about two hours to go about five miles back to the park. Additionally, this winter, Braman said they plan to create access to the large boulders at the top of the Perry County Park trails for top roping and bouldering activities.
Braman said this work won’t stop at the park. Perry County is also home to Buckhorn Lake State Resort Park, located on the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River. Currently, two designated trails exist at Buckhorn Lake State Park, but others in the planning stages in partnership with Buckhorn Children and Family Services. In the future, they also plan to develop trails in Leatherwood, Viper and other Perry County communities. Any trail the county assists in developing will be open to the public.
Recognizing the work of the city, county, Pathfinders and others, Hazard was designated a Kentucky Trail Town by the Kentucky Department of Tourism in late 2018. On August 13, 2019, they will hold a grand opening celebration for the trail system and will be presented with their official Trail Town highway sign. Along with plenty of ongoing Pathfinder group hiking opportunities each week, they are also planning the second annual Boulder Rock 10K Run for October 2019.
Working to build trails helps create healthy options for exercise and recreation in our communities, as well as a way to attract visitors looking for outdoor adventure. These opportunities are essential to creating Appalachia’s New Day.
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